Gods Eater Burst

Gods Eater Burst is a tasty combat snack.

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With a name like Gods Eater Burst, I was sure that it was going
to be Japanese. And I was sure that it was going to be
weird.

What I discovered was a pleasant, almost predictable
videogame. Yes, it’s Japanese. And yes, there’s some
weirdness. But being a Gods Eater isn’t as strange or
unsettling as I thought it would be.

Being a Gods Eater is a lot like being any other videogame hero.
The short version of a Gods Eater’s job description is to hunt down
and kill the game’s assortment of monsters. These monsters are the
Aragami: evil spirits who have taken the forms of primitive gods. In
other words, the monsters are a lot like giant predatory beasts. As
revenge from the gods (or an alien invasion or whatever) Aragami
have taken over most of the world, pushing humans to the brink of
destruction.

That’s where we come into the picture. Don’t get me wrong: a
Gods Eater doesn’t actually eat the Aragami. The swords that are
permanently attached to our arms eat the Aragami. Imagine the cartoon
singing sword in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but demonic and with
fangs. The swords can also transform into guns. Somewhere in all of
this is a feature that makes me a “New Type” Gods Eater, but I have
no idea what the old type was like.

I see a lot more action as a Gods Eater than I did when I was
stalking monsters in my various Monster Hunter incarnations. Gods
Eater Burst is about undertaking quick missions. I head out into a
basic, blocky PSP world to kill a bunch of little gods or one big god.
The gods and I hack, shoot and chew it out in real time with the
added challenge of the PSP’s awkward aiming.

Being a Gods Eater is never lonely. I’m perpetually sharing
my battles with computer-controlled assistants. It’s a quick, handy
substitute for Monster Hunter’s multiplayer battles, and my artifically informed
friends are often as weird and unpredictable as I am. But give
us a break, OK? We’re protecting humanity while lugging around big,
chompy swordguns that are attached to our arms. And I haven’t even
told you about the bursting.

THE GOOD: Weapons are the way to grow in Gods Eater Burst,
whether by strategically eating gods, or crafting programmable bullets.
It brings a role-playing element to the real-time combat of the
game, and gives its battles the variety that’s missing in the game’s
limited assortment of gods.

THE BAD: Only Japanese games have names like Gods Eater Burst.
But only Japanese games are full of so many deadly dull anime
cutscenes in which 3D models of the characters stand around
onscreen gently swaying while epic electronic mu sic blasts in the
background. It is easily the least engaging presentation imaginable for
the game’s story, and it makes it difficult to care about many of the
non-action portions of Gods Eater Burst.